Minister's column: Life is about showing love, not your job or possessions

The Rev. Chris Shingleton / Columnist

Friday

Oct 11, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 11, 2013 at 9:15 PM

Since the beginning of time, man has been searching for the meaning of life. It was almost a catch phrase during the late 60s and early 70s, as so many people of my generation rejected many long-held traditional values.

The hippy generation embraced the sexual revolution and the drug culture, and since then the meaning of life has been pretty much self-centered for far too many people. Success and happiness are often measured by our jobs, our possessions, and other material indicators.

What better place to look for the meaning of life than to go to the Creator of life, the One who gives abundant life. The Bible has much to say about the meaning of life and even gives us guidance on how we can achieve true meaning and purpose in our lives.

Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible teaches that life does not consist of the abundance of possessions. Yet today, we live in an age which everyone thinks that more is better and that we have to possess the latest and most fashionable gadget, gizmo, or garment.

The Bible also has much to say about our relationships with others; for example, it teaches that we are to love others as we love ourselves. That is in direct opposition to today’s popular thinking that everything is all about the individual and “looking out for number one”.

Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and author of “Man’s Search for Meaning,” followed the teaching of the Bible when he stated that people create meaning in three ways: through their work, through their relationships, and by how they choose to meet unavoidable suffering.

Too often our work defines who we are and that is not always the kind of person that we really desire to be. People often seek out relationships by considering what a certain acquaintance might do for them rather than how they might draw near someone in order to actually help the other person.

Loving others, as we love ourselves, means that we are to be more concerned about the welfare of those around us than we are about our own well-being. Frankl’s earned the privilege to write about suffering — he spent time in several concentration camps and lost all of his immediate family except for a sister.

Few of us will ever face the kind of dire circumstances that Frankl and millions of others face, yet we often allow our misfortunes to determine the person that we become. We need to move beyond the negative aspects of our lives and embrace the many positives that surround us.

Life is about so much more than our possessions and our status; it’s about our relationships and the ways in which we show love and compassion to our brothers and sisters around the world.

Chris Singleton is the program manager for Stop Hunger Now. He can be reached at csingleton@stophungernow.org.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.